Managed Services

Managed Services i.e. the provision of full service business models delivered and managed by the supplier, is perhaps the highest expression of a buy-sell business relationship. It commands skills and resources specific to a service – but not specific to a client. Outsourcing everyday tasks and management functions to cut operating expenses and improve operations is, for example, predominant in the IT space where people and infrastructure can be readily supplied and maintained by the vendor.

The attraction of a managed services proposition is that it does not require the client to have any of the proposed skillsets or technologies. Indeed, due to the cost of establishing and maintaining people and infrastructure, the client is better off not having the inherent skills at all.

In Procurement, there is a fine line between what is known as Managed Services and what Reassign has termed ‘Co-Sourcing’, the difference being that the latter assumes the client has the people skills (and technology) in place but may want to supplement them or address peak load issues without investing additional capital in staff or technology. Small and medium-sized enterprises do not have the critical mass to efficiently manage procurement very well. Operations of say, 1 to 4 procurement employees, are expensive to operate and difficult to manage and it is likely that they do not have the breadth of experience required to adequately serve their business.

A managed service solution frees organisations to focus on core business outcomes.

In theory, the client does not relinquish overall control of the organisation, or systems being managed, to the Managed Services Provider (MSP). The relationship should provide an opportunity to gain the benefits of an acquired, more mature process that has critical mass relating to staff and process as well as the experience and market knowledge necessary to maximise savings opportunities.

Reassign provides Managed Services in two forms;

Category Management

Resource Enhancement (Co-Sourcing)

Category Management
Reassign’s category management services are delivered using resources deployed on-site. We manage portfolios of direct and indirect categories with expenditures ranging in scale from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. In a Category Managed Services arrangement, Reassign assumes the responsibility for;

Category Analytics

Planning

Supplier Pre-Qualification

Sourcing, Buying

Vendor Performance Management

Invoice Validation & Recovery Auditing

Demand & Compliance Management

Term of Contract Category Management

We also monitor, interpret and integrate information from supplier reportage and transfer this knowledge to the client together with observations made. We assist in the operationalising of all improvements, process enhancements and cost reduction initiatives.

Resource Enhancement
Our resource enhancement service provides clients with in-demand procurement skillsets, people and related support resources they themselves do not possess.

This service introduces the expert resources to ensure that business remains scalable and continues uninterrupted. It allows operational objectives to be achieved over short, medium or long term periods, in circumstances where peak demand, natural backlogging, and unavoidable impediments such as extended leave entitlements, impact adversely on business-as-usual.